Hot Air From Obama Administration On Their 'Energy Freeze'

WASHINGTON– Michael Bromwich, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE), testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. As has seemed to become his custom, Mr. Bromwich spent his time desperately attempting to provide cover for the Obama Administration’s anti-energy agenda.

In his written testimony, Mr. Bromwich claims that shallow water drilling permits “have averaged 6 per month since October 2010, compared to an average of 8 per month in 2009.” He is correct. However, he forgets to mention that shallow water permits granted in 2008 averaged 16.8 per month. Mr. Bromwich’s statement highlights the drastic decrease in shallow water permitting since President Obama came into office. Meanwhile, shallow water energy producers have spilled only 15 barrels of oil in the past 15 years of production.

But the administration’s shallow water permitting record is fantastic when compared to deepwater permits. BOEMRE has only approved two permits to drill a new well in waters deeper than 500 feet since the end of the moratorium.

“The Energy Freeze that the Obama Administration is imposing on the Gulf coast is destroying businesses and causing families to lose their livelihood,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research. “And it doesn’t stop there: the entire nation is paying higher gas prices, in part because the Obama Administration’s moratorium and permitorium in the Gulf of Mexico – where Americans get 1/3 of their domestic oil – has reduced oil production there by 360,000 barrels per day from Energy Information Administration expectations.”

“While the moratorium on drilling is over, the permitorium continues to keep Americans unemployed and keep our nation more reliant on state-owned energy companies in regions of the world that are inimical to American values.”

Mr. Cory Kief, the president of an oil rig transportation group that employs about 100 people, had the best summary of the Obama Administration’s actions in his testimony: “Mr. Bromwich claims to be offended by the term ‘permitorium’, but [he] doesn’t understand that MILLIONS of people are offended by the actions, or LACK of actions, by this administration… This government is so broken, and is beginning to virally infect the American people who deserve better.”